Meet Melissa

Melissa Saunders | Clinical Social Worker & Assistant Director for Clinical Services | Counseling and Psychological Services | Six | Years

What's the name of your hometown?

Durham, NC

Describe your role as Clinical Social Worker and Assistant Director for Clinical Services.

I provide individual and group therapy to students; assist the Clinical Director in the management of walk-in and other clinical services and with other administrative tasks; supervise young therapists; provide consultation to CAPS Staff, students, parents, UNC faculty and staff, student organizations and other entities on campus; and represent CAPS on several standing University committees.

What do you like most about your work?

Supporting students at a critical time in their life, wearing multiple different "hats" each day, and never knowing what the day will bring. There's never a dull moment!

Is there a lesson learned from working through the pandemic that you are applying now that students are back on campus?

Stay flexible, keep putting one foot in front of the other and trust that you'll find a way to cope with whatever comes.

What's your favorite work memory?

Watching snow falling on the Bell Tower at night during the last big snowstorm on campus.

What's one of your favorite things?

My Golden Retriever, Samantha

What are you listening to? (music/podcast/ book)

Listening to anything and everything by Rhiannon Giddens. Reading "The Water Dancer" (by Ta-Nehisi Coates), "To Drink from the Well: The Struggle for Racial Equality at the Nation's Oldest Public University" (by Geeta Kapur) & "The Moonflower Murders" (by Anthony Horowitz).

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

In addition to my social work degree, I also have a law degree. Before I became a clinical social worker, I was a law professor at UNC for 18 years.